The fast radio burst population energy distribution
Abstract We examine the energy distribution of the fast radio burst (FRB) population using a well-defined sample of 63 FRBs from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope, 28 of which are localised to a host galaxy. We apply the luminosity-volume ( $V/V_{\mathrm{max}}$ ) test to examine the distribution of these transient sources, accounting for cosmological and instrumental effects, and determine the energy distribution for the sampled population over the redshift range $0.01 \lesssim z \lesssim 1.02$ . We find the distribution between $10^{23}$ and $10^{26}$ J Hz $^{-1}$ to be consistent with both a pure power-law with differential slope $\gamma=-1.96 \pm 0.15$ , and a Schechter function with $\gamma = -1.82 \pm 0.12$ and downturn energy $E_\mathrm{max} \sim 6.3 \, \times 10^{25}$ J Hz $^{-1}$ . We identify systematic effects which currently limit our ability to probe the luminosity function outside this range and give a prescription for their treatment. Finally, we find that with the current dataset, we are unable to distinguish between the evolutionary and spectral models considered in this work.
Authors
- Chris Flynn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1110-0712)
- Clancy W. James (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6437-6176)
- R. M. Shannon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7285-6348)
- W. Arcus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5981-8822)
- K. W. Bannister (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2149-0363)
- Marcin Glowacki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5067-8894)
- R. D. Ekers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3532-9928)
- R. B. Wayth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6995-4131)
- Jean‐Pierre Macquart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6763-8234)
- S. D. Ryder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4501-8100)
- E. M. Sadler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1136-2555)
- Alexa C. Gordon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5025-4645)
- Lachlan James Marnoch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1483-0147)
- Adam T. Deller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9434-3837)
Institutions
- Northwestern University (US)
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Australia Telescope National Facility (AU)
- Curtin University (AU)
- ASTRO-3D (AU)
- ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (AU)
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (AU)
- Swinburne University of Technology (AU)
- Macquarie University (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia
- Published
- 2025-01-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1017/pasa.2024.114
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 8.08
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Northwestern University
- Science and Industry Endowment Fund
- Australian Government
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
- Government of Western Australia